Sunday, August 12, 2007

I always wanted to make a blog about my little grinder do, but its been too long since I’ve done it so I didn’t have the motivation to blog it up. Its about time I get it out of the way, I guess I need to thank Tim Wendelboe for a tiny bit of encouragement. This one is for you Tim .. haha

Ok so here is the story … I bought a Mazzer Major grinder on e-bay, it was cheap so it turned out a good deal overall. When this grinder got to me; it was in a pretty bad shape. You could tell straight away that it has been used an abused on so many different levels. The guy that actually sold it to me hasn’t even cleared out the left over grounds of coffee. The grinder mechanism was in good comdition but the blades were worn out. So here I am cleaning it with a compressor and everything. I decided to restore the grinder completely, this is what I did to it:

Airbrush designs:

I wanted to do something special on the grinder, something simple. Many people recommended patterns such as flames or tribal art, but I wanted it unique. After all its not a car. So it came down to two conclusions: pink panther or pac-man. Both were pretty easy to sketch in illustrator and very original. I decided to go with pac-man as I had more flexibility to come up with my own design and really make it complicated and interesting all the way around. But then still why pac-man?!?! Well every one knows it and has played it on Atari so why not …? Here you can see my illustrator sketches of the mock maze which was later lightly modified by my airbrush artist.

Taking the beast apart:

As you see the grinder body has lots of chips and dents and its not the prettiest thing to look at either.

First steps first … I stripped the grinder completely and unwired everything. Taking the coil way a pain in the ass, I didn’t follow any internet instructions but someone recommended putting it in the over for the metal to expand and that way the could slips out with slight force. So if you ever get around to taking it out, you might wanna do that …

Laying coats:

I needed to sand little chips and imperfections over for the paint to be nice and even. So I put 3 coats of undercoat and sanded all the imperfections, on the last photo you can see that everything is smooth and ready to be painted black! Be sure to air spray everything, you will get a nice even result through out the project. I did 3 coats of black paint, I actually used a matt car paint to give it a more sexy appeal. The whole thing will be clear-coated at the end so plenty of smoothness … just wait and see.

The airbrushing:

From here I took it over to my airbrush artist. I have given him all my illustrator vector designs so he was able to cut out stencil and get the job done, he has personally told me that it’s the craziest smallest project he has ever seen. He even requested photos which I believe are on his website. This guy has never heard or seen a coffee grinder in his life so for him it was a challenge to paint around the sides and making it look shmick! As you can see everything turned out according to plan. On one of the photos you can see my new-bodied beast sucking up 80kg of coffee to season the new blades.

I hope you had fun browsing through photos and if you have any further questions please let me know … I am always open to tips and help so shoot …

I guess I will take this opportunity to thank a few people, it is indeed an impossible task getting this done on your own so here it goes.

Dan thanks for helping me take everything apart and then putting it back together, your shed is indeed a goldmind haha and don’t worry about the clicker wheel, I got a new one :)

Sammy, my best buddy – we sprayed and we sprayed … got it all done in the end, cheers for your help mate

Guys at the airbrushing studio … you guys rocked did an awesome job!

Tony D’Angelo thanks for providing me with a ton of robusta to season my blades

And last but not least Tim Wendelboe for poking my motivation with a stick

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About Me

Just before I went traveling I made this blog to keep track of all the coffee shops I had visited in search of the perfect cup. Today this blog serves a purpose of general coffee discussions and various experiments. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy sharing my experiences and opinions. Here is my e-mail, get in touch. sqrl@internode.on.net